Author: Natalie Voss
Materials Needed:
- Jar
- Food coloring
- 4 plastic cups
- Light corn syrup
- Vegetable oil
- Blue Dawn dish soap
- Rubbing alcohol
Instructions:
Color the corn syrup red, rubbing alcohol green, and vegetable oil yellow using food coloring. Put an equal amount of each liquid into the four plastic cups. Then, in the jar, put the blue dish soap in first, then the green rubbing alcohol, then the red corn syrup, and finally the yellow vegetable oil. Let each layer settle before adding the next one.
Why Does This Work?
This works because of something called density. The equation for density is:
Density= Mass/Volume
In other words, density is how heavy something is (mass) divided by how much space it takes up (volume). If an object is heavy yet compact, the object is a high-density object. If an object is light but takes up a lot of space (a balloon is an example of this), it has low density.
Density explains why some objects sink while others float. The densest object will sink (because they are the heaviest), while the least dense object will float (because they are the lightest). In our experiment, we added different liquids, which have different masses and the same volumes, because we put equal amounts of each liquid into the jar. So, the less dense liquids are the lightest ones and will float, while the denser liquids are the heavier liquids and they will sink.